Dark Horse are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hellboy in a big way come 2014, with variant covers across many of their titles and a Hellboy: The First 20 Years hardcover due out in March. There’s also a stack of new titles coming out, many of which were announced at NYCC or prior, but they are no less exciting for our forewarning. So what post Christmas treats do the folks at Dark Horse have in store for us next year?

Serenity NOW!

Despite early cancellation of the TV show Firefly, fans were pretty lucky to get the Universal released film Serenity a few years later from comics super geek Joss Whedon. Still not satisfied, the official canonical continuation comes out as a six issue mini-series called Serenity: Leaves on the Wind. Written by Zack Whedon, either another one of the brothers or a series of clones designed to accomplish an Age of Whedon, it’s solicited with the following fine words:

Malcolm Reynolds’s crew shook the ’verse to its core when they laid bare the crimes against humanity undertaken by their sinister government—the Alliance. Always outlaws, Mal, a very pregnant Zoe, new pilot River Tam, and the other surviving crew members are in greater danger than ever. Meanwhile, everyone is asking the same question . . .

The book is pencilled by Georges Jeanty, who readers may already know from Buffy Season 8 and 9. Expect this one to fly off the shelves, or be cancelled at issue 4 and spun off into a movie.

Juice Squeezers

First appearing in the pages of Dark Horse Presents, the Juice Squeezers #1 is billed as “A Goonies style adventure from David Lapham”. When we reviewed the DHP short for Newsarama, we noted that it was about “a group of students [who] all wind up in the arts-and-crafts equivalent of The Breakfast Club.” So there’s definitely some cinematic influences there, but also the great boys (and girls) own adventure stories of the last century or so. It’s giant bugs trying to take over a small town through a series of covert underground tunnels: how can this not already be on the top of your buy list for January?

Skyman takes a solo flight

Spinning out of Captain Midnight, Ultimates writerJoshua Hale Fialkov and Manuel Garcia bring a new 4-issue mini-series for this curious character. For those not familiar with the story so far, the solicitation is intriguing: “After an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Captain Midnight, a drunken Skyman accidentally kills an innocent man! Needing a new face for their initiative ASAP, the Skyman Program turns to US Air Force Sgt. Eric Reid: a wounded veteran on the ropes, looking for a new lease on life.” The first issue of Captain Midnight is also being reprinted as part of the #1 for $1 campaign Dark Horse are running, so it’s a good opportunity to jump on board both titles.

Some of the other highlights for the month include:

FROM BRAM STOKER WINNER JONATHAN MABERRY!Bad Blood #1 (of 5)
Jonathan Maberry (W) and Tyler Crook (A/Cover)
On sale Jan 1
FC, 32 pages
$3.99
Miniseries
Getting bitten by a vampire pissed him off. Seeing his best friend brutally slaughtered started a war.
Trick was a typical college student—sort of—until vampires attacked. Then he found out his blood was poison to the bloodsuckers. And Trick will do anything to eradicate them.
• His blood kills! A vampire tale with an unlikely hero!
• Art by Eisner Award–winning Tyler Crook (B.P.R.D., The Sixth Gun, Petrograd).

Furious #1 (of 5)
Bryan J. L. Glass (W) and Victor Santos (A/Cover)
On sale Jan 29
FC, 32 pages
$3.99
Miniseries
Staring into a fractured mirror of her life, the world’s first superhero, Furious, seeks to atone for her past sins by doling out rage-fueled justice! But the spotlight of our celebrity-obsessed media threatens to undo her noblest efforts and expose her true identity before she can achieve redemption.
• From Bryan J. L. Glass and Victor Santos the creative team of Mice Templar!
• Furious is where celebrity, fame, and superheroes meet.